RFID tag recognition apparatus and method and article sales data processing apparatus

• US 7,501,950 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2006
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Shigeaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg; George A
• Application Number:
  US11/449,790
• Publication Number:
  US 20070008136A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,006 Days
• Field of Search: 3405721-5729, 340 101- 106, 340/5.61, 235375-385, 235/492, 705 22- 24, 705 28- 32, 700/215, 700221-222, 700224-227, 700/229
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0054 with control of supplementary check-parameters, e.g. weight or number of articles

Abstract

An RFID tag recognizing portion reads information from a plurality of RFID tags lying in a communication area of an antenna. The number of RFID tags from which information is read is counted. Further, the number of articles lying in the communication area of the antenna is acquired. Then, the number of RFID tags 6a is compared with the number of articles and information of the RFID tags is determined when they coincide with each other.

Claims

1. An RFID tag recognizing apparatus which recognizes storage information of RFID tags attached to respective articles, comprising:

an antenna which performs radio-communication with the RFID tags,

a reading portion which reads storage information of RFID tags lying in a communication area of the antenna,

a tag counting portion which counts the number of RFID tags from which storage information is read by the reading portion,

an article number acquiring portion which acquires the number of articles lying in the communication area of the antenna,

a comparing portion which compares the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion with the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion, and

a processing portion which determines the storage information of the RFID tags read by the reading portion when the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion coincides with the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion as a result of the comparison by the comparing portion.

2. The RFID tag recognizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing portion informs an error when the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion does not coincide with the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion.

3. The RFID tag recognizing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an input portion which inputs numerical data,

wherein the article number acquiring portion acquires numerical data input via the input portion as the number of articles.

4. The RFID tag recognizing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a photographing portion which photographs the articles lying in the communication area of the antenna,

wherein the article number acquiring portion includes an article determining portion which determines the articles based on image data photographed by the photographing portion and an article counting portion which counts the number of articles determined by the article determining portion.

5. The RFID tag recognizing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising an input portion which inputs numerical data,

wherein the processing portion informs an operation of waiting for input of numerical data when the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion is larger than the number of articles counted by the article counting portion and the article number acquiring portion acquires numerical data input via the input portion as the number of articles after the operation of waiting for input of the numerical data is informed.

6. The RFID tag recognizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing portion informs a difference between the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion and the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion as a deficient number when the number of RFID tags is smaller than the number of articles.

7. An article sales data processing apparatus which processes article sales data based on storage information of RFID tags attached to respective articles, comprising:

an antenna which performs radio-communication with the RFID tags,

a reading portion which reads storage information of RFID tags lying in a communication area of the antenna,

a tag counting portion which counts the number of RFID tags from which storage information is read by the reading portion,

an article number acquiring portion which acquires the number of articles lying in the communication area of the antenna,

a comparing portion which compares the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion with the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion, and

a processing portion which determines the storage information of the RFID tags read by the reading portion when the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion coincides with the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion.

8. The article sales data processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising an informing portion which informs an error when the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion does not coincide with the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion.

9. The article sales data processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a photographing portion which photographs the articles lying in the communication area of the antenna,

wherein the article number acquiring portion includes an article determining portion which determines the articles based on image data photographed by the photographing portion and an article counting portion which counts the number of articles determined by the determining portion.

10. The article sales data processing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising an input portion which inputs numerical data,

wherein the processing portion informs an operation of waiting for input of the article number when the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion is larger than the number of articles counted by the article counting portion and the article number acquiring portion acquires numerical data input via the input portion as the number of articles after the operation of waiting for input of the article number is informed.

11. The article sales data processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a display portion which displays article data,

wherein the processing portion causes the display portion to display a deficient portion as a vacant space when the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion is smaller than the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion.

12. The article sales data processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a display portion which displays article data,

wherein the processing portion causes the display portion to display boxes of a number corresponding to the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion and sequentially display article names of the articles to which the RFID tags whose storage information is read by the reading portion are attached in the respective display boxes when the number of RFID tags counted by the tag counting portion is smaller than the number of articles acquired by the article number acquiring portion.

13. An RFID tag recognizing method which recognizes storage information of RFID tags attached to respective articles, comprising:

reading storage information of RFID tags lying in a communication area of an antenna which performs radio-communication with the RFID tags,

counting the number of RFID tags from which storage information is read,

acquiring the number of articles lying in the communication area of the antenna,

comparing the number of articles with the number of RFID tags, and

determining the storage information of the RFID tags read when the number of articles coincides with the number of RFID tags and informs an error when the number of articles does not coincide with the number of RFID tags.